Analysis of antibody levels before and after praziquantel treatment in human paragonimiasis heterotremus.

Enzyme immunoassays (ELISA) and Western blot analysis were used to determine IgG antibody levels in patients infected with Paragonimus heterotremus from Thailand before and after treatment with praziquantel. An IgG antibody ELISA showed that a substantial reduction of antibody levels occurred after one year of treatment. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot analysis showed that P. heterotremus adult extract is highly complex, consisting of more than 9 antigenic bands with molecular size ranging from 123 kDa to less than 12.3 kDa. Two prominent bands of 31.5 kDa and 18.5 kDa were found to show consistent reactions with all serum samples from the pretreatment group. There was a marked reduction in the intensity of the reaction of the 31.5 kDa band with each serum sample from post-treatment patients but the other bands disappeared during the one year interval.